By Martha Lai
A few weeks ago, Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli announced a $500,000 increase in the city’s art funding.
“We’re absolutely serious about this ,” he said. “We put our money where our mouth is.”
Well, now that the applause has died down, we’d like to see the money, please.
Apparently, this half-a-million-dollar increase is just a trick of accounting. The city gave its office of cultural affairs increased funding two years ago.
Last year, they made the increase permanent. The $500,000 that Chiarelli announced three weeks ago was already in the budget, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to add more.
One could say that $500,000 is still a lot of money. It is. Remember, though, that it’s the same amount of money that was given to the arts community two years ago. Thanks to amalgamation, the city got bigger, but the money stayed the same. And that means that there are a lot more fingers clamouring for a piece of the pie.
Simply put, the math says says that instead of an increase, ultimately there’s been a decrease in Ottawa’s arts funding.
While Chiarelli’s “new” funding announcement got more fanfare, it’s his second idea that better stands up to scrutiny. City council is now working on a way to bring wider exposure to Ottawa’s often-overlooked community arts.
This new “Arts Master Plan,” as it’s billed on the city’s Web site, “is aimed at sparking the building of Ottawa as a creative city with an identity all its own,” including a five-year action plan. The hoped-for outcome is an Ottawa that is culturally richer and more artistically stimulating.
Citizens and politicians alike are always comparing Ottawa to Toronto, and not always in a flattering light. The truth is, artists do leave for bigger cities like Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, because that’s where the money is.
Until we make Canada’s capital city more accessible to artists, we’re not going to have as vibrant and exciting an arts scene as we should. The potential is there and, according to Chiarelli, the infrastructure is coming. All we need now is the money.
And luckily, Chiarelli has already shown himself open to developing the arts. All he has to do now is put his money where his mouth is.